Executive SummaryIn this study, teachers' perspectives, their awareness level of specific technologies and the roles this technology plays in education are researched. Technical problems that inhibited the use of computers in their schools are also identified. Data was elicited from a sample of 252 teachers who were working in basic education schools in Trabzon, Turkey.The results revealed that many teachers were not computer users. Many teachers lacked a functional computer literacy foundation upon which to build new technology and skills. Analysis of teachers' knowledge of computer technologies revealed low levels of technical knowledge, as well as some interesting perceptions of the role of some specific computer-related items. For most teachers, the use of computers and related technologies had not been a routine part of their own educational environment.This study showed that gender, years of teaching, and school status have a significant relationship to familiarity with computer technologies in Turkey. Lack of hardware, lack of knowledge and skills about using computers, lack of training or insufficient training opportunities, and crowded classrooms were determined as the most important problems that basic education schools face in Turkey. Data suggest that elementary school teachers in Turkey need to be increasingly encouraged to explore the emerging technologies for teaching. The results of this study can be used in the educational systems of newly developing countries to overcome the difficulties mentioned in Turkey's case.

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This paper describes an interactive and self-paced multimedia tutorial programme that provides pre-service teachers with a complete range of school system and teaching strategies. Situated learning has been used as the theoretical framework to produce the multimedia tutorial for a pre-service teachers' School Experience course. The programme allows pre-service teachers to implement approaches appropriate for teaching a K-12 curriculum. Two methods of information delivery were investigated: traditional lecturing and multimedia. The results show that using the multimedia tutorial leads to a positive difference in the School Experience course over participants in traditional lecturing. Pre-service teachers who participated in the multimedia group responded positively to a multimedia approach. This study concludes that using multimedia in teacher education enriches pre-service teachers' learning and provides them with an opportunity to view and critique various teaching methods and classroom activities collectively. faculty staff and schoolteachers' (mentor teachers) roles and their responsibilities were identified. Pre-service teachers were assigned to partner schools depending on school capacity to have sufficient class contact teaching time, and the pre-service teachers were organised to work in classrooms that cover subject areas and age ranges they were being prepared to teach. Pre-service teachers were introduced to the School Experience course twice, at the beginning and at the end of their teachertraining programme.The purpose of the School Experience course is to help pre-service teachers get acquainted with the school, pupils, and the teaching profession from various perspectives at an early stage in the training programme. Observations and practices are carried out by pre-service teachers under the supervision of a mentor teacher to prepare for teaching practice in class. Some of the observations and practices include use of questions in teaching, explanations and regulations for classroom teaching, management of a lesson and control of classroom, study of pupils from various dimensions, evaluation of pupils work, lesson planning, use of textbooks, group work, organisation of classroom environments, preparing and using worksheets, and micro-teaching applications in class.Recent research in Turkey indicates that there are some problems when implementing the School Experience course. Interviews with pre-service teachers and examination of their observation reports show that objectives and requirements are not successfully met by pre-service teachers. Misunderstanding of required activities by pre-service teachers, unexplained learning experiences in which the preservice teacher should participate, and inadequate training (including materials such as handouts study guides, and instructors manuals) were the most important problems encountered in implementing a school experience course (